A lot of people state that good photography is all about light. I don't think whoever came up with this first ever lived in England. And if you are a small-time photographer like me, and you have a day job, and a nighttime job to boot, you might not have a chance to get any decent light-situation during the dreary weeks of English winter.
My local microclimate is particularly mean. At sunrise - which at the moment is around 8am - the sky is usually clear, but by the time I have had my breakfast a major cloudbank is greying everything over. I don't always have the time to go out during that precious hour and at the weekends I do like to sleep in, so I often have the choice to either take photos in flat light or to take none.
Yesterday was a day of exceptionally uninspiring light. Before we headed out for some fresh air I decided to take my Eos 7D (whose autofocus in low light conditions is far superior to the 5D Mark II) and my 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens which is - well - good for macros but also generally sharp and clear in low light conditions. I got the most peculiar results. Making the photos smaller for the web has of course enhanced the grunge-factor, but even then the originals look more like paintings than photos (and that's not because I forgot my glasses at home):
This morning, though, I snuck out before breakfast: